MPs in the field...

...at exercises--and on board ship. Seems like a good program to me since only nine MPs (out of 308) have Canadian military experience (this one, defeated at the last election, served with the Pakistan Air Force):

MPs in training
Parliamentarians embed with the Forces

Fifteen MPs ditched their suits for military garb this summer and embedded themselves with the Canadian Forces.

They joined existing training exercises of the navy and army. They were shot at, while others learned to shoot. They patrolled mock Afghan villages and simulated ambushes against suspected "Taliban" hideouts.

"The mock battles (were) so realistic, you just can't imagine -- and it is not a game, it is taken so seriously," Liberal MP Frank Valeriote said.

Valeriote and seven other MPs recently returned from four days at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre in Wainwright, Alta., where the army has tried to replicate life in Afghanistan and at the Kandahar Airfield [good stuff here (with video at end) and here--better than I could find on any CF webpage].

Afghan-Canadians have even been hired to play local Afghans, police officers and Taliban insurgents.

It may feel real, but there is no live ammunition -- when IEDs explode, it's baby powder, Maj. Dale MacEachern said.

MPs and soldiers were outfitted with a weapons effect simulation vest, implanted with sensors that allow the wearer to know where they have been injured or if they have been "fatally" shot by lasers on enemy weapons...

The goal of the Canadian Forces Parliamentary Program is to provide the country's decision makers with a "clearer " understanding of the issues facing the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, said its DND organizer, Alexandra Hernandez.

So far this summer, 15 MPs have joined; by the end of September, 38 parliamentarians are expected to participate.

Some programs are more popular than others. "There is a waiting list for the air force, Hernandez said, adding numbers are restricted because "it's really hard to bring more than two people in a CF-18."

NDP leader Jack Layton, who spent 24 hours on board HMCS Halifax in early August, had to climb a swinging rope to board the ship. "Your first exposure is very real -- it's a 50- or 60-foot fall if you were to let go," he said...

JUSTIN TRUDEAU RECOUNTS HIS FIRST OVERNIGHT MISSION [read on]...

Photos of Mr Layton and Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber:

Le chef du NPD Jack Layton a passé 24 heures à bord de la frégate HMCS Halifax et le député conservateur Brent Rathgeber a appris à se servir d'une mitrailleuse.
© Agence QMI

More on exercises training for Afstan here, here and here.